BURTON, Michigan -- Mayor Charles Smiley contends nude pictures as well as sexually explicit messages, jokes and cartoons were found on former Police Chief Bruce Whitman's computer at work before he was fired by the city in November.

Smiley made the accusations in a deposition taken last month as part of a lawsuit Whitman filed over his firing. The deposition was provided to The Journal by Whitman's attorney, Tom Pabst.

In the deposition, Smiley said he had been aware of the messages for over a year before Whitman's firing but was too consumed by other things to confront the chief about them.

"I did not take time to go through there and say, 'Well, let me read those e-mails. Let me see what he's doing,'" Smiley said. "No, I did not do that. And I should have done that."

The comments elicited a stinging response from Pabst.

"He (Smiley) knew about the messages for over a year and did nothing, no type of disciplinary action whatsoever," said Pabst, who questioned Smiley in the deposition. "So that's obviously not the reason he fired him."

The Journal could not reach Smiley for comment about the deposition.

In the deposition, Smiley didn't directly link the sexually explicit material to Whitman's dismissal for misconduct. Smiley has said he was unhappy with Whitman's performance as chief and was looking to take the department in a different direction.

But Audrey Forbush, who's representing the city in the lawsuit, alleged that Whitman violated a Burton policy prohibiting downloads of sexually explicit material and backs the city's misconduct claim.

Smiley said the material was found on Whitman's computer by Burton's information technology department during a sweep of the city's internal server in early 2006.

Smiley said he met with all city staff at that point to warn them to clean up their computers.

Whitman declined comment on Smiley's accusations.

In his deposition Smiley said at the time he was too busy to individually counsel Whitman about the messages.

"(It) was the worst time of my life with everything going on," Smiley said in the deposition.

Around the time the e-mails supposedly surfaced, former Burton public works director Charles Abbey, who was a Smiley ally, was facing bribery and extortion charges, for which he was subsequently convicted. Abbey's accuser, developer Blake Rizzo, linked Smiley to the case but the mayor never faced charges.

Whitman filed suit against the city in February, claiming he was fired for threatening to blow the whistle on Smiley's alleged violation of the city charter regarding unused vacation days.

During his deposition, Smiley said he had a "gentleman's agreement" with his staff, in which they agreed to a "use them or lose them" policy for vacation days. Smiley said Whitman broke the agreement when he demanded to be paid for his unused vacation time.

In response to written questions from Pabst, the city admitted that pornographic jokes and cartoon images also were found on the computer of Fire Chief Doug Halstead, according to documents provided by Pabst.

Smiley said in the deposition that he gave Halstead a verbal warning about the e-mails during his interview for reappointment late last year.

Halstead declined comment when recently contacted by The Journal.

"I refrain in this case from saying anything because I don't know what's going at this point on," Halstead said.